Irving Place Townhouse

On a tree-lined street in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, a former carriage house from the 1930s is now a colorful modern home that boasts bright orange shipping containers.

Commissioned by an artist, a gallerist, and their daughter, LOT-EK was tasked with renovating and expanding their existing two-story home. The new design rotates around an extension made out of stacked shipping containers, and features vibrant colors and a centralized-floor plan. As a result, the architecture is now organized around a polychromatic core volume that extends from the ground floor to the roof terrace.

The redesign includes a bright orange penthouse, which was retrofitted out of four stacked shipping containers. This part of the house dictates the flow between each space and provides access to an external rooftop terrace. The same color continues throughout—intersecting, connecting, and organizing various internal sections.

On the ground floor, the home is entered though a mudroom that sits adjacent to the kitchen and living room. Just above, the master bedroom is isolated from the child’s playroom/bedroom by the orange containers. Upwards, stairs lead to the home’s uppermost story—the penthouse. In this area, the family can enjoy their own private outdoor area—an outright luxury in New York City.

From street level, the rooftop shipping containers remain out of sight, yet subtly implied by obscured views of orange. The stripes painted across the matte black facade reference the diagonal voids that define the scheme’s interior.